Tuesday, November 16, 2010

There Will Be Blood

One of the best things (or maybe worst) about being an OFW
is that you get to practice your english when talking to people,
be it in whatever form - carabao, jejemon, accented or fluent.


Last week, an early morning meeting was called upon by our Finance Manager. The whole office crew gathered together in surprise thinking what it's gonna be about. Would heads roll in the department? Salary increase finally? Speculations were traded between our mouths until the Manager discussed his agenda. After he told us the "new rule", everybody was dumbfounded, nobody wanted to talk. W-T-H!. Everybody was advised to talk in English even in casual conversations with fellows and especially, when someone from other nationalities is involved in the exchange. Anyone caught talking in native tounge would be penalized.

The Manager cited some relavant and quite understandable reasons for imposing the "new rule". First and foremost, he said English is the most commonly spoken language in the world and by using it more often, one gets to acquaint himself more comfortably with the formation of sentences and thoughts. Honestly, I sometimes suffer from manually translating a Tagalog statement in my head before I could say it in English rather than just letting the words flow unabruptly and without fear of any grammatical errors. Second reason is to excuse other nationalities from getting paranoid as they always think they are the subject when Filipinos buzz like bees in Tagalog or when everybody goes into hysterical laughter. In the office, Filipinos outnumber the other races, 16 out of 22 and in the whole company, maybe 70% of 300 employees.

So the quest for an all English environment begun in the office right after the meeting. But in as much as we wanted to take this challenge seriously, culture has made it uneasy to start with. Speaking in pure English is not common for most Filipinos and uttering the words with the same Tagalog twang makes it even funny to hear. Since no one else except ourselves would laugh at our unintentional murder of the English language, we obliged and let the blood spitting dare broke ground. It's good seeing the "progress" if you may call it, though it is still unusual, and funny at most time.

-----------------------------------0-----------------------------------

As expected, Manny Pacquiao won via unanimous decision over Antonio Margarito in what others called a 'beating' match Sunday at the Dallas Stadium. Speed and heavy punches made up for Manny's lack of size and the result has sent Margarito to hospital bed right after the fight. He sustained a fractured right orbital bone and is scheduled to undergo surgery today. He has joined the rest of Manny Pacqiao's victims who took such a beating and turned their pretty faces into a swollen bloody mess. Carnage! Take a look:

Keep bleeding..You don't mess up with Manny.

And so Manny emerged victorious, a record eight consecutive wins in eight divisional titles. He truly makes our country proud. That being said, I won't try lambast his nose-bleeding English. Or did I just say that?

9 comments:

  1. wow parang call center ah. english only policy

    ReplyDelete
  2. hehehe parang ganun, pero di naman stricto masyado, just to be fair lang naman to others who dont speak our language. pero totoo non, sila talaga madlas naming pagtripan.(bad)

    ReplyDelete
  3. naalala ko tuloy ung english policy when i was in highschool, every mroning we would be given keytags.. ipapass sya sa mga mahuhuling nagtatagalog and at the end of the day kung sino ang maabutan ng keytags magmumulta, kahit during breaktime, same rules apply.. so nabawasan ang nag iingay..
    it is effective naman hehehe

    how are you?

    ReplyDelete
  4. brad naalala ko ang isang letterhead na design ko sa pinas "English only Policy" and tagline, para daw angat ang status ng company...
    dito rin ganyan, para daw hindi insulto sa mga itik pero sila naman sa kanilang salita din...

    ReplyDelete
  5. @YanaH

    ewan ko kung yun talaga purpose ng manager namin kaya nilagay nya yung rule na yun, masyado kasi kaming maingay, parang palengke sa ofis, lalo na pag may chismis.

    pero effective siya, ang kadalasan sagot ngayun eh yes sir ans yes mam na lang! lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. @kiko

    sobrang paranoid nga amg itik talaga, pero pag sila namana ng nag uusap,wala kami paki. palibhasa kasi, ka okray okray sila kaya parang feeling nila eh sila tlaga topic ng aming usapan.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hi dubs from the word dubai? i had once visited your blog and came into conclusion nasa dubai pala naninirahan ang mga magagaling magblog. :-)

    maybe we are lucky here in ksa, arabic at tagalog at bisaya lang ang acceptable sa work coz mafi englisi ang karamihan, kaya kinalawang na ang mga tomato english namin. Good for u, mapaparactice lalo ang galing nyo sa english. btw, isa ako sa legion of fans mo rito. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  8. @NFB

    thanks sa pag add.

    despite sa hindi nyo madalas paggamit ng english sa office, i must say na your english is top of the line. at may sense ang mga blogs mo. lets keep the good stuff coming.

    wish ko din matutuong mag arabic, added advantage din yun. thanks ulit.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kung hindi English ang first language mo, talagang magtatranslate ka pa muna sa Enlgish sa utak mo ng sasabihin mo bago mo sya sabihin.

    almost 15 years na akong wala sa Pinas pero may times na ganun pa rin ako. Pero siguro dahil na rin sa tagal, may mga pag-iisip ako na english na. At pag nangyayari ako, natitigilan ako. Sa utak ko, nasasabi ko, "Aba, English un, ah!!"

    Hehehe.. thank you sa link. Ni-link din kita. I-pramis mong dadalawin mo ako palagi at dalawin din kita kasi magaganda ang mga entries mo :) Gudlak sa Pinoy Expats Blog Award.

    ReplyDelete